我孫子市国際交流協会

Day/time: Saturday, October 29 from 1:30pm to 4:00pm
Participants: About 50 people
Among several historic houses in Abiko city, the Aijima residence in Fusa is unique in opening its premises for citizen's activities of art and culture for years in the name of "The Aijima Art and Culture Village". Fusa is situated in the southeast of the city.
AIRA has guided there guests from foreign countries in the past, who were moved by the calm and solemn atmosphere of the residence.
In commemoration of its 10th anniversary this year, concerts, art exhibitions and other cultural events are now being held in the gallery and the main building. As one of the participating organizers, AIRA held on October 29 an event titled "A day in Aijima to enjoy elegant shell game and lecture of the local history", with the program as under-mentioned.
1. Strolling around the house and garden
Visitors enjoyed looking into various old buildings such as main house, warehouses, main gate and other items mostly built in the late Edo period.
2. Shell-game playing
Mrs. Chizuko Inoue, the wife of the proprietor of the residence, founded The Japan Shell Art Association in 1995 and has been endeavoring to familiarize shell art and shell-game playing throughout the country.
Her pupils and herself hosted today's event explaining the history of the play and how to enjoy the game. Since the participants were so many, the play was performed at 2 spots in the salon separately in two shifts with about 10 players each. Players sat around clam shells placed reversibly on the floor concentrically in several lines. The leader pointed any one of the shells at random asking the player to find out its pair out of numerous shells on the floor. What counts in the pair-finding is to judge correctly the color, size, thickness, or figure of each shell. No shell has the exact similarity.
The sensibility is more important than the memory of the player, Mrs. Inoue stressed.
Since the game used to be played among lady-aristocrats traditionally under rather strict rules, players of the day were required to behave and respond in elegant manner. Several graceful age-old words were exchanged among the players. When the pair shells were chosen, they were opened for identification. And an elegant praise was given to the player when a correct selection was achieved.The shells' inside are brilliantly colored by the pictures or letters related with figures of nobility, flowers, dolls, etc.
All attended, mostly those of mid-aged women, enjoyed the rare opportunity.

3. Lecture on the local history
A special lecture was given in the Japanese saloon by Mrs. Reiko Koshioka, well-known regional history teller in the city. The following is the excerpt of her hour-long speech.
（１）The history of Tega lake reclamation works
Firstly she outlined the results of long-term and pains-taking works achieved by the ancestors of the Inoue families. In 1725, the fourth master of the family moved to the present location with the purpose of irrigating the southern part of Tega lake. After the success-and-failure process in developing the new lands through generations, the irrigation and reclamation works were finally completed in 1951 by the 12th owner, Inoue Jiro. Thus newly developed large-scale lands appeared in the southeast of the present lake.
She introduced some unknown historical topics such that the Tone river had been artificially made its route as we see now to protect people out of repeated floods, and that the Tega lake was once known as the dominant source of eels.
（２）Literary figures who once visited or passed through Fusa area.
Not a few artists and writers had traveled to Fusa in the past.
Matsuo Basho, famous wandering essayist in the Edo era, dropped in the town in August, 1687 on his way to Kashima, and left the town on the same day on board a liner in the Tone river.
Watanabe Kazan in 1825 took a boat and crossed the vast Tega lake as far as Fusa shore and visited the Enomoto's mansion, another noted landowner in the town. Watanabe was a remarkable character outstanding in art, painting, science, philosophy, and so on.
We should never miss Yanagida Kunio, a well-known scholar who established folklore study in Japan. He often visited his brother's house in Fusa together with young novelists, such as Shimazaki Toson, Tayama Katai, Kunikida Doppo, etc.
Mizuhara Shuoshi, a famous poet, was so fond of the Tega Lake that he visited Abiko city more than 50 times, and particularly in 1957 he paid a visit to the Akita residence, another wealthy farm house in this area.
Mrs. Koshioka referred to some more topics of the history of Abiko city.

Every participant apparently enjoyed the memorable half-a-day tour to the Aijima village filled with artistic and historical atmosphere.

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